ALA creates institutional repository

Contact:

CHICAGO – The American Library Association in collaboration with the University of Illinois is creating its own institutional repository (ALAIR). An institutional repository by definition is a digital repository for collecting, preserving and disseminating the informational, some say intellectual, some research, output of an organization. The University of Illinois was chosen because of the expertise of its archives and IR staff and that the University currently houses the ALA print archives.

The institutional repository initiative began in the spring of 2012 as a discussion by the board of directors of the Association for Library Collections and Technical Services (ALCTS). The ALCTS board was interested in the possibility of creating an ALCTS repository. The University then approached Charles Wilt, ALCTS executive director, and Karen Muller, ALA librarian, with a proposal to build the repository at Illinois for all of ALA. In 2013, an agreement was reached between ALA and the University to begin work on the repository. Chris Prom, assistant university archivist at the University of Illinois, is leading the project.

The initial project funding was a collaborative effort of six divisions and the ALA Library. The divisions involved were ALCTS, Association of College and Research Libraries (ACRL), Association for Library Services to Children (ALSC), American Association of School Librarians (AASL), Public Library Association (PLA) and Reference and User Services Association (RUSA).

Chris Prom and his staff will present a program on the project, Sunday morning, Jan. 26, beginning at 8:30 a.m. in room 204-A of the Pennsylvania Convention Center.